This Chic Fire Entinguisher Won The 2019 Good Design Award

Chic B&W Fire Extinguishers Designed to Encourage Safety Without Sacrificing Elegance

Thanks to its minimal design, the Residential Fire Extinguisher by Japanese company Morita Miyata was awarded the 2019 Good Design Good Focus Award—an honor given to natural disaster prevention and recovery designs that aim to enrich lives, society, and industry. The idea behind the winning design was “take bosai (Japanese for ‘disaster preparedness') into your lifestyle,” and its goal was to show how easy it is to integrate fire extinguishers into the home.

By looking beyond the traditional red color, the design more easily harmonizes with living spaces and fits multiple design aesthetics. The fire extinguishers are offered in matte black and white, which integrate well with contemporary palettes and allow homeowners to feel comfortable placing them in the open. Because displaying the tool allows for quicker and easier access in the event of an emergency, the design is intended not only for its looks but for its indirect safety impact as well.

While the minimal and sleek design of the fire extinguisher means the tool can be placed anywhere, homeowners are encouraged to do more than buy it and forget it. Instead, they're urged to write the expiration date on an included “memory tag” to remind them when it's time to buy a new one—naturally promoting disaster prevention and emergency preparedness. This makes sense considering Morita Miyata Coporation's operations; the company, which has been around for almost 130 years, primarily makes firefighting equipment. However, it created +maffs, a separate design company, to focus on creating the Residential Fire Extinguisher and uniting style and function.